Light it Red

Griffin Cunningham 0:10
Welcome back to Light it Red. Thanks for listening this week. It was a bye week this week for football. So obviously, we have less segments or I guess less content to talk about. So, we have a team in mind that we are going to talk about for our second segment today after we do our news rundown, which I'm actually kind of excited about. It's it's a, it's a breath of fresh air to to be able to talk about new team that doesn't lose maybe as much

Patrick Simon 0:41
a refreshing one could say

Griffin Cunningham 0:42
Yeah, and then for the last segment, Stone and Patrick are going to go into kind of a deep dive of some professional athletes, which I'm excited to hear about. And I am hoping to learn a little bit about some baseball too. Because if you know me, I don't know anything about baseball. So yeah. before all that, we will talk about men's soccer and Stone didn't. Did you want to add just about the segment one, just like content notes?

Stone Boylan 1:17
Yes, I just wanted to clarify stuff with the new segment, we had a few questions before with a few episodes. And we just want to make it known that we do this, you know, beginning news segments, like NC State sports news intro every single week, because we want to preview all of the sports. And unfortunately, obviously, we're not gonna be able to get intense, you know, deep dives into all these sports, just because it would take a long time. But I can assure that throughout the year when important, you know, games, or important events pop up with each sport, we will go over them and they'll be covered. It's just, you know, some sports might not, you know, have as much information to go off of as others. But they'll always be in this news segment, like the news segment. So if it's not, you know, it's a particular sport, and you don't think it was, you know, went in depth enough? Or maybe there wasn't enough stuff there. I can assure you, you know, throughout this sports season, whether it's spring, fall winter, it'll definitely be covered and have its fair share of talk with all three of us.

Griffin Cunningham 2:25
Definitely. Yeah, so and we're transitioning from fall to winter right now. So there is going to be a shift in what we talked about in the beginning of the episodes, which I'm actually really excited about. I think winter sports are arguably better than fall sports. That is my hot take. Yeah, soI'll start by talking about men's soccer. They tied Syracuse recently one the one Syracuse defending national champions, and they're also ranked number 19 in the country. So that's a huge win for this team.

Stone Boylan 3:00
Technically tied, but a good game. A huge game for them.

Griffin Cunningham 3:04
It feels like a win sometimes when they do tie

Stone Boylan 3:07
With this team? Yeah

Patrick Simon 3:08
like no one's really know them. Yeah.

Griffin Cunningham 3:11
The only goal scored was by Karamoco. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I've seen him play a couple times. And he is very aggressive and active player on the pitch like, all over the place when he does get minutes minutes are limited because he's a freshman. But I think the team is going to be in very good hands with him and some other freshmen that are going to be playing next season.

Stone Boylan 3:33
Hopefully him and he can help Luke Hillie in bring out the good stars that we have, because a lot of them are very young. So hopefully we can hit our peak in the next two to three years

Griffin Cunningham 3:45
for sure. And then they have Clemson on Friday the 27th. They're the number 10 team in the country. So they won the national championship two years ago. So we have the last few national champions our last two games of the season. And I'm hoping that they can compete with Clemson Clemson's a tougher opponent by ranking than Syracuse. So we will see and if they do win that game or tie it, I think that'll provide a shed more light on kind of the nature of their postseason position because right now we don't know.

Speaking of postseason, women's soccer has been eliminated. Unfortunately, with a loss to the number 12 ranked Notre Dame not really much to say about that. It's been a disappointing season. Their best player Jamise Joseph was thrown out with a red card. She obviously was playing a very emotional and passionate game and coach Centaura at the end of the game just said the better team won and you know you pack it up and try again next year. They have one more game against Florida State on the road but that's it for Dale stadium for women's soccer. So on to bigger and better things next year, hopefully

After soccer, I have cross country down here. Cross country is about to start their ACC championship

on Friday the 27th. So obviously they're back to back national champions, Katelyn Tuohy will almost definitely be running in this after only running in one regular season meet. Speaking of Tuohy, I saw her running down the street on campus. And I just thought that was that was such a cool and unique thing because first of all, I was on the phone.

Stone Boylan 5:36
Yeah, do the point. The point of view saying is because you're on the phone with me. She spawned in five yards away, cuz I was on the phone. Yeah. Cuz I was on the phone and then ran past you. And then when you hung up, she'd despawned and then went back to, you know, wherever she was, her house or something.

Griffin Cunningham 5:55
Yeah, that's probably what happened. I can't can't dispute that. But it was it was cool to see her in that context, I guess. Because usually you don't see athletes like outside of their, like actually training for their sport. Because they have, you know, lavish practice facilities. But with cross country, obviously, it's a little different. So yeah, wishing the best of luck to her and the rest of the team. Obviously, there's a whole there's a whole team to like Tuohy, Tuohy is the most accomplished on the team. But we've talked about several runners throughout the season, and you know, we have Grace Hartman is a sophomore, she's been great. And then a lot of hands, a handful of freshmen runners that that I've gotten to seen run, probably are not going to be part of this ACC championship competition. But I am excited about it. And I will stay tuned and we will have more to talk about next week. Wrestling is starting this is one of those winter sports is talking about wrestle offs on Friday at Reynolds Coliseum. And they don't come back again until February. So if you're a wrestling fan, if you want to see some ACC championship banners go to Reynolds

Stone Boylan 7:04
Yeah, this will definitely be a sport that will be brought up next semester with us because this is definitely a great stretch that we've had the past few years with ACC NC State wrestling.

Griffin Cunningham 7:16
Yeah, one of our best programs. So something to look forward to if you're just kind of down in the blues with football and, and volleyball and soccer. So yeah, speaking of Well, before I get into volleyball just mentioned softball and baseball because those are spring sports that are in preseason. Softball has a longer preseason than baseball and baseball. This past weekend had two preseason games that they won softball is still going obviously. So more on that next week. As well as swimming and diving. They've started their season, that's a winter sport. So those those will be in our lineup for the segment one going forward. So some new things to talk about. And I'm, I'm excited about that. So like, like I mentioned volleyball, stone and I were at the most recent, not the most recent we were at the one on Friday against pit pit was ranked number seven going into that matchup stone. What did you think about that game?

Stone Boylan 8:18
Poop, just poop. That's pretty much it. Not to, you know, the dismay of the athletes, just the game itself. And how we showed up how they showed up, it was just completely different. opposite ends of the spectrum, they dominated us it was an 0 to 3 loss, we didn't win a single set. None of the sets were really even close. The second set was I would say it would be the closest one and even then it was only close. In the beginning we had led a little bit kind of went back and forth. Pitt ended up pulling away. On a like more serious note, the team just seemed a bit more dominant than NC State, they were much taller, had way more blocks, I believe they had triple the amount of blocks at NC State had anytime state would attempt to get a kill or a point, Pitt seemingly was able to find a way to hit it right back to him twice as hard. Had a lot of self inflicted wounds. But even then Pitt did too. So at the end of the day, it just comes down to Pitt playing and seeming like just a straight up more dominant team. Which is unfortunate because obviously we're able to get that huge win against Louisville earlier in the year. And this unfortunately broke our 10 game win streak at home. And it also, you know, like I said was a dominating loss. We didn't do it, particularly anything well. So, you know, hopefully we can bounce back in the future. At least pre you know, going on to the next game. It was pretty much exactly what I had previewed last episode Pitt and Virginia, complete opposite ends of the spectrum, Virginia, we ended up killing them three, nothing, none of that was really close at all, either. So that's a good win. But in terms of, you know, the Pitt game since we're going on about it, just kind of disappointing. And hopefully we can. I won't say you know anything about our future games, I'll let Pat or I'll let Patrick and Griffin get in here but just kind of disappointing with the Pitt win hopefully we can win in the future and get ranked back again.

Griffin Cunningham 10:29
Yeah, I mean, they they haven't been ranked at all this season. So

Stone Boylan 10:32
or Yeah, I guess back in the ranks conversation, because they were I believe in the receiving votes there around like 29 or 28 yeah, yeah. So maybe we can get back there at

Griffin Cunningham 10:41
least Yeah, as a fan. And as someone who covers volleyball, that was really disappointing to see. I've been doing this for two years now. And that's the worst. I've seen them play, which was just super unfortunate, because you have to be on your A game against a top 10 team. So I mean, they're you can't have an off night against a good team, basically. And that's just what happened. And the way they were setting the ball, they were like, it was like being set up for spikes, like almost out of bounds. So almost impossible for the frontline to get to the ball. Rice, it was her first game back, she had limited minutes. So that obviously didn't help.

Stone Boylan 11:19
I will say she was very good Ava, Amanda rice and Ava Broussard if one of them if one of them was not on the court, we just did not have a chance to win. Like those were the only two players that even had a positive hitting percentage. So Broussard and rice, definitely, you know, are two clear best players. But like you said, rice didn't play as much. And we've got to have other people step up if we want to compete.

Griffin Cunningham 11:44
We also had a negative experience at that game. Know, I don't know if you want to talk about that. If it's still like a sensitive topic for you.

Stone Boylan 11:54
I would say I'm over it. I guess a little bit not really, but turned up a little bit over there. But yeah, so if you don't know, for this Pitt game. They were promoting it as hey, if the first 200 people that come in get free Chick fil A sandwiches, I was like, that's awesome. I love Chick fil A. So I was already going to cover the game with Griffin. So I was we were like, Hey, let's go early. And we can get you know, a seat because we're part of the media. So we wanted a good seat. Because there were a lot of media people coming there because Pitt was also bringing their media team. So a lot of coverage for the game. And we're like, Let's go early and get the sandwiches. So we go in early. First of all we went in, and no one even checked anything. No one we had passes on and no one cared at all. Like, we could have easily been to random people who just grabbed a pass that looks like a student media pass and walked in and even check our bags either. So it kind of it was kind of weird. But nonetheless, we went in and we put got our stuff situated went down. We're like, Alright, I want to go get that sandwich. I mean, check where it is. Because we had waited a little bit and then they were just starting to open the gates. So we went down. We're like, Hey, do you you know, could we get one since we just got in? And they were like, sorry, this is like for students only. And I thought it was like, Okay, well, I'm clearly student like, we don't look like we're 35 year old random men who just are in the stadium. So we're obviously students. And then he was like, I was like, Yeah, well, we're students. You know, this is our student media pass. He was like, who knows you since you're with the media, you're not technically students that are coming in here. Like, okay, that's dumb, but whatever. Could have sandwich please. And he was like, I can't give you one right now. But if you come back in 30 minutes, and there's still some I'll let you guys have some. Okay, perfect. So we go back up. Wait 30 minutes. I'm like watching the clock every five minutes because I'm so hungry. I haven't eaten in like 10 hours. And then I go back down. And I'm like, Hey, I'm back. You know, what's up? Do you mind if I get a sandwich? And he's like, sorry, there's still people coming in. And I watched him give like the last five sandwiches away. And he like did it so maliciously. Like he was so happy to watch me be sad about him giving away all the sandwiches. And it's just the guy who's the same age as us. That takes his job too seriously, because he thinks he's doing something that's actually relevant for the stadium even though he's just handing out sandwiches. So yeah, I hope he hope he enjoyed it'd be enjoyed that because congrats you gave that one random fan a sandwich even though they were should have given it to me but whatever, fine.

Griffin Cunningham 14:37
So yeah, that was unfortunate. And I didn't go back down because I was embarrassed. Oh, Stone had to get rejected twice.

Stone Boylan 14:41
I'm not embarrassed. I

Patrick Simon 14:42
don't care. I want to see if it was just out there with his head in his hands just upset.

Griffin Cunningham 14:46
Yeah, it was a rough night for everybody. Yeah, Patrick, did you have anything you wanted to say about volleyball or

Patrick Simon 14:53
didn't still still up in arms over the Chick fil A blender just can't get over it?

Griffin Cunningham 14:58
Yeah. Um, Do you want to like, what? What are the rules of volleyball?

Patrick Simon 15:04
So my only my only experience with volleyball is my best friends. I go to my best friend's little sister's volleyball games with him. That was. Now I wouldn't, I wouldn't consider JV volleyball to be high quality. I don't know if I have the best representation of the sport and my past.

Griffin Cunningham 15:20
Yeah, I think next week, next week, what we're going to do is we're going to have you break down volleyball, okay, we're gonna have you learn it in a week, and then you're going to be our volleyball expert. Okay, and you'll have a lot to contribute to the conversation. I'm really looking forward to this. That sounds like a good segment. Yeah, so that was that was what we have for volleyball, they have Duke on the 27th and UNC on the 29th. So our in state rivals, let's see if we can come away with some W's get back on track after the Virginia win, or I guess can continue to stay on track.

Stone Boylan 15:54
quick notes about those two games. Both of them are almost the same in terms of kind of our history with them. And then their current state right now. We have not won at Duke since 2001. It's been Oh, and oh, and 18 Haven't won a Duke. But right now, they're not great, Ducasse, three and five and their last eight. So that's not particularly a team that is insanely scary. The only bad part is that it's on the road. And that's the same thing with UNC, UNC is also on the road two days later. And it's virtually the same thing, except maybe a little farther, instead of 2001. It's been since 1999. And we are Oh, in 19. At UNC. The last win versus them in general was in 2018 When we were at home, obviously. But UNC is also not that good. They're currently 10 and nine, and have lost three games at home, which is a lot for, you know, a competitive ACC volleyball team. So it's very possible we could win. I hope at least one of these games, it would especially be nice, because they're both, you know, obviously, our two biggest rivals, I would say UNC would be the most realistic one. But hopefully we can come away with a redeeming W on these two road games.

Griffin Cunningham 17:13
Okay, well, that's perfect. Let's jump right into trrrrr and the segment two. So what would you just say? Segment two? No, no, before?

Stone Boylan 17:24
That's right. Trrrr.

Griffin Cunningham 17:28
I just, I was thinking about what I said earlier, and then I got confused. So a little bit difficult. Sorry, um,

Stone Boylan 17:34
you know who else is confused? NC State fans and why our football team is so bad. It's true.

Patrick Simon 17:41
Very true.

Griffin Cunningham 17:42
That's a valid point. And speaking of football, we had a bye week this week. So we don't have any notes on football this week, because we're too tired of talking about losing. And I mean, there really wouldn't be much to say I mean, I don't know if the depth charts are out yet or anything. But what we're going to do instead is we're going to talk about just the ACC college football and in particular, we want to talk about UNC, losing to Virginia. It's always a treat

Patrick Simon 18:17
was the highlight of my weekend. What a major rival. It was. That was wonderful. Yeah.

Griffin Cunningham 18:21
So I guess I'll let I let Patrick, go ahead and just tell us about kind of what's happening in college football right now in the ACC,

Patrick Simon 18:30
your ACC or the do you want to talk about the UNC loss first or more specifically, the ACC,

Griffin Cunningham 18:34
um, I think I mean ties together pretty well. So what have

Patrick Simon 18:38
you so I would just say starting out, I would say that ACC landscape is a whole kind of different from what we were expecting the beginning of preseason. State was supposed to have a moment necessarily necessarily say a down year, but they were definitely their expectations were a lot higher going into the year than where they're at right now. Brennan Armstrong's impact was supposed to be a lot greater. As we've seen, obviously since he's been benched that wasn't quite the way we plan on having that play out. Clemson as well. Clemson is just straight up not good this year. I know last year, they were teetering a little bit as well. But this is like just implosion. We're at four and three. And obviously we didn't have too many the same expectations that Clemson has going into the season and Clemson is also for and three coming into our game this weekend. So that's definitely not what we were looking at from the preseason, UNC and Florida State, Florida State I believe started the season at nine. They've been in and out of the top four since week two. So they've definitely lived up to their expectations. Chapel Hill was well had some pretty high expectations going into the season. As you were saying as it connects, they had their loss over the weekend, which was wonderful. I have my one of my best friends is just a gigantic Chapel Hill fan and like the whole course of the game, he was just texting in the group chat like this. This isn't they're not blocking for Drake third, this isn't Drake's for everything like like free Walker. Like, it's just

Stone Boylan 20:04
not I don't think all that stuff is wrong. UNC, as someone who watches a lot of their stuff, they play with their food way too much. And they let these teams get in and it bites them in the butt. And it easily could have been with App State earlier in the season. App States obviously had close games with them before. They just always lose those one or two games that they should win, which keeps them from being any sort of league program. So at least the state with their team Mack Brown, their head coaches, an awesome recruiter, probably one of the best, probably the best in the state of North Carolina, one of the best in the country, but they cannot get the coaching right at all, which is obviously prohibiting them from doing well. But I don't really see this extremely unmade either. The team had five drops, he accounted for three touchdowns, had 350 yards, the defense was very poor, and the interception that he had was obviously they were trying to drive down the field he got hit well he was throwing in Virginia dove for a pick so yeah, I don't I don't put that on Drake may either. The defenses just very inconsistent. And if you know obviously you look at state's game against them and Carolinas you say oh my god, like we did so good. We beat them at Virginia, and they beat Carolina, you know, at Carolina, but that's obviously not how football works and you don't just go off of what happened in games before. But this officially takes them out of the college football playoff conversation. I don't care if they win the ACC. I don't think losing to a one win Virginia team at home is I think that's a huge hindrance on their record and they may end up getting a good bowl game but I don't I think their clutch footplate hopes are pretty much over.

Patrick Simon 21:55
I was, I was one of the one of the be people I was watching the game with was like, you know, Chapel Hill always has something that goes their way there. They're lucky. And then as soon as he said that, that was when they had the tip or the fumble out of the back of the endzone. And I was like this, this is gonna be it. This is gonna be where Chapel Hill gets their lucky moment. But then, of course, the interception on the next or one of the following drives which was definitely convenient. And then there's just for the overall so the the ACC landscape. I don't I don't think at this point. FSU has any real competition, I think, I think Chapel Hill at this point, especially after the Virginia loss there's not really much else that they're going to do with only a 17. I think it's the I mean, we know the ACC championships gonna probably be but in terms of rankings, FSU is going to probably stay

Stone Boylan 22:42
up there, Florida's Yeah, it's Florida State and everyone else. Yeah.

Patrick Simon 22:46
I mean, there's just, I think just the big thing is the FSU is just the most complete team in the conference.

Stone Boylan 22:51
As a team, I think they're extremely overrated. And the ACC is super, super weak.

Patrick Simon 22:57
Are you saying like in terms of like college football playoffs? Yes,

Stone Boylan 22:59
they're ranked very high. But I think they're clearly the best team in the ACC. They probably will win it only teams realistically that are behind them are probably Louisville, Unc, obviously, but they had a bad loss. Maybe Miami or Clemson if they ended up playing hot because they've shown you know, obviously very high peaks just they've had some valleys as well. But yeah, I think Florida state, they've had some close calls to unranked teams. Yeah. Clemson and Boston College. They only won by two points. They beat Duke last week, which was their best win but it was at home and Riley Leonard their star quarterback was hurt. And Duke was like right in the game when he was playing. And then he got injured and went all downhill. So if they make the college football playoff, which they obviously could because ACC is pretty weak. And they could just went out. There'll be the worst team their their top 10 team, but they're not up there with the other ones.

Patrick Simon 23:57
I think what's massively boosting them up is their win over Louisville. And I started not Louisville over LSU in week one, because now LSU is ranked 15th. So obviously they're not the fifth ranked team. They were at the beginning of season or at least expected to be. So I think after that, after that they really haven't had any many impressive wins. Like you said, they'd be Duke but they didn't Riley Leonard. And then really, I mean, they have an impressive win over Syracuse, but then too many too many close calls against unranked teams. Yeah,

Stone Boylan 24:25
I mean, obviously, with college football, it's weird in terms of it's a sport where your entire resume matters so much. Whereas college basketball or other sports like you are NFL, you can drop a game here or there. And it won't greatly affect your team. Like that's why you don't see NFL teams go undefeated all the time, and still be all time great teams. But I mean, it was one of the first games of the season against LSU they're obviously still getting all their stuff together. They have a head coach those in their second year. New quarterback like yeah, now they're good, but if they played each other now it would be a very different game, Louisville LSU might even win the game. I think they would. So yeah, as you said, Patrick, that's pretty much the reason they're up there. But I don't know if they stand with, you know, the Michigan's which I think is the best team in the country with all of their NFL talent. They have Georgia, Ohio State Washington, Oklahoma, Alabama.

Patrick Simon 25:19
I don't I think they would lose to all those teams. And then I guess kind of carrying over now specifically into the college football playoffs. Outlook. Griffin, did you have any predictions? Or I guess your top teams are in the top four, or the college football playoff? Yeah, I mean, obviously, like the top four general, like what you think will end up being in the top four?

Griffin Cunningham 25:39
I don't know, I think I've been following NC State a lot more than other teams. I know, Georgia is up there. I'm trying to think you I mean, we just talked about I think Florida State will make it as I mean, obviously it's the only ACC school that makes it in and then the other two I think are, are more up for grabs is that

Stone Boylan 26:01
I think with the I think there's a clear difference between where the best teams are and what the college football playoff will be. Because I think all those teams I listed are better. And I even would pick Oregon and Penn State, I think they're actually better than Florida State as well, because they play just a much harder schedule and played a lot of teams. But they've lost and Florida State, as you said, will probably make it because they don't have a hard schedule. In the future. They don't play a single ranked team, at least as of this point. And then the ACC championship, they would obviously play you know, a good team. But realistically, it won't be someone that can extremely rival them, I hope they lose because I don't think they deserve to be in it. But realistically, they probably more likely than not will win out and be there. And it'll pretty much just be you know, Georgia who I think will win the SEC, if they don't win it, then I believe Bama should be there, because they will most likely be the team that beats Georgia, if any team does. And then you got other teams like Washington and Oklahoma who are both undefeated and have both gotten huge wins Washington beating and great super balanced Oregon team and Oklahoma beating Texas on the road, which was in extremely, extremely good win. And Texas is now kind of out of the picture because they lost Quinn for the you know, a good few weeks. So one of Oklahoma and Washington if they went out there, you're gonna have to make it and then you got to have the winner of the big 10 Because the winner of the big 10 is probably going to be the best or second best team in the country. And that's either going to be Michigan or Ohio State. And they played shorter than the last game of the season. I hope both of them make it because I think they're both deserving. But I feel like those are kind of your seven teams right now that are in the mix for the college football playoff

Patrick Simon 27:44
I so I liked your point about Washington because they go through a gauntlet over the next couple of weeks with just with ranked teams. Obviously Stanford's not not good or ranked. But then they play USC and Caleb Williams, Utah, Oregon State and then they play Washington state that was also previously ranked

Stone Boylan 28:01
that I mean, if they I think they are currently the fourth the third best team if they beat all those teams, yeah, they deserve to be top two because Oregon State and Utah both are borderline top 10 teams Oregon State I would put top 10 I think they're playing phenomenal football, Utah, obviously playing very well. So yeah.

Patrick Simon 28:24
Their defense is a little bit suspect. But I think Michael panics and the rest of that offense will is a lot of talent on offense. There's I mean, they there's three NFL receivers, NFL tackles, quarterbacks in the NFL, Washington is an NFL offense. If there's any team that I think that can, if Florida, Florida's margin, Florida states are their margin for error is small, because if they lose Washington easily push up into that. And they have they don't really have much of a much of a case the rest of the season because I mean, the rest of Florida State schedule, they play Wake Forest, Pitt, Miami, North Alabama and Florida. So they're what they have compared to the rest of the teams that are inching up behind them. It's just it's not even comparable. And I like what you said also about Bama stone, because I feel like Bama was one of those teams that they have. They'll have hiccups in the middle of the season. But I feel like once it gets into the actual college football playoffs, and when it actually counts. Bama is gonna be one of the best teams.

Stone Boylan 29:21
Yeah, I think they're they're still under the radar. I don't feel like people were talking about Yeah, enough. I think they're like, obviously, sometimes the AP rankings are a little like they've Texas still in the top 10. I don't think they should still be in the top 10 Especially after losing their quarterback. And then Florida State super high when other teams have just played better. But I think Bama is a top six seven team. And like I said if there were to be a team that would knock Georgia off in the SEC right now it would be banned. But if I were to give you a prediction right now, if we want to do it quickly, I would give you Michigan, Georgia, Washington and Florida State I don't want Florida state to be in there. So if I could just give one switch It would be having Ohio State, give giving them the benefit of the doubt if they let's say, lose a super close game on the road to Michigan. And let's say they go, instead of being three, they fall to four, which has happened before for them. That would be my ideal college football playoff. But if Florida State wins out, they will most likely end up making

Patrick Simon 30:21
it. So you said the sort of one that was getting dropped from before right now is going to be Ohio State. It's

Stone Boylan 30:25
because it's just gonna be so hard if, if Washington and Oklahoma and Florida State all went out, one of them or two of them probably has to be in ideally, I think unfortunately, Washington might end up, you know, Washington or Oklahoma probably might end up losing. If I had to pick I'd say Oklahoma, but Washington plays like you said it gauntlet. So it's just hard to tell. But I think Michigan, Georgia, Ohio state ideally would be at four, but it'll probably be Florida State. And then one of either Washington or Oklahoma.

Patrick Simon 31:02
Yeah. I agree. I I know we talked about this previously. But um, I don't know Michigan. I always get weird vibes from Michigan, just because I always feel like they're ranked high consistently to the seasons. And they don't fare too well in the playoffs. Their defense, though. I mean, the 5.9 points per game allowed. There's really not much you can say about that absurd. Yeah, I mean, that is absolutely ridiculous.

Stone Boylan 31:26
I mean, they haven't. Yeah, they've played a lot of people. So they'll actually be tested these next few weeks. But I personally think they can live up to

Patrick Simon 31:35
what you're saying about Ohio State. So if there's a team that dropped because in Michigan does win out, they played Ohio State last. So Michigan, really Ohio State's future, you could say is in, in the hands of Michigan, because if they if they beat them, they're not, they're gonna get dropped.

Stone Boylan 31:50
Even if they lose, I'll say if they lose a super close game, I think the committee will could give them the benefit of the doubt if these other teams like Washington, Oklahoma, and Florida State lose

Patrick Simon 32:00
Yeah. And I mean, in Michigan, also, if they lose the Ohio State before then they still play Penn State. So they still have, which is a very good team ranked 10. So that, would they they're gonna still have a couple hard tests. I mean, they played Purdue and Maryland, which obviously isn't gonna be as strong. But I think that if they win that Penn State game and they drop it to Ohio State, I agree. I think the committee will probably overlook it say they need to be honest.

Griffin Cunningham 32:24
Well, thanks for sharing that guys. Because obviously, you both know a lot more about the college football playoff landscape than I do. I forgot about Washington, obviously. And then I think Jada McCarthy leads in Heisman candidacy vote Yeah,

Stone Boylan 32:39
Heisman this year is not super dominant in terms of like one play, because people are disappointed in Caleb Williams. Yeah. Which I still think he's clear. Number one overall pick in the draft. If you don't, then you're gonna look even stupid even next year.

Patrick Simon 32:52
Like the last two games he's had, they were a little iffy. But then people were like, acting like, too bad consecutive games is writing him off as a prospect is the worst

Stone Boylan 33:01
game he's had, like, in his entire college career. And it wasn't even that horrendous. Yeah. So he'll still be there. But yeah, JJ McCarthy's the leading candidate, I would say him and Michael Penix, Jr. Who's the quarterback for Washington are the two that I would look at right now. Right? Absolutely.

Griffin Cunningham 33:18
Yeah. So I wanted to also talk about kind of the personnel on UNC. I know they're not going to be as relevant. Because obviously we have we mentioned Florida State, Washington, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, all those teams are in contention for the college football playoffs. With UNC losing the Virginia that's, I mean, it's just so competitive. So that's why they're kind of, I mean, written off at this point. But they had, I mean, this is something that we've been meaning to talk about for a while, just because they're so close to us, like in like geographically speaking. And just like in the medical metaphorical sense. Like there are rivals and there are our like, our, I mean, our sister school, basically same programs and similar structures and stuff like that. So they have a receiver of redshirt junior receiver, Tez Walker, who wasn't he wasn't being allowed to play early in the season. And I wish that we were able to bring this up a little bit earlier. Because I mean, now with them losing, it's like it's less of a storyline almost. But for those of you who don't know Tez Walker, he transferred from NC Central to Kent State and then came to UNC. And the rule is that if you transfer more than one time you have to sit a year. So the transfer portal has changed a lot of these transfer rules and at is a lot more player friendly. But the system kind of let Tez Walker and UNC down here because he didn't actually play at NC Central, he didn't play a game. And he didn't enjoy it there. And so he left and the NCAA allegedly didn't have this information. I mean, there, it's kind of a hard story. I think there's still going to be details that come out about this. But

Stone Boylan 35:26
it's it was said that he was obviously trying to double transfer he transferred to Kent State after he was at Central and then very quickly after went to Carolina, they were looking at him and then we when he declared there, they didn't let him in NCAA takes forever to do anything anyways, that's why we didn't bring it up. But all the signs, stealing allegations with Michigan, all that stuff that's going on, which by the way, it's not as big of a deal as they're making it out to be. But there might be punishments that come down the line. None of it's going to happen this year, because the NCAA takes a long time to do stuff. But there was reportedly certain information that UNC didn't provide. And that information hasn't been revealed yet, because the NCAA said they want to quote, you know, keep respect towards the personal life and just privateness of Tez Walker. So really confusing about what sort of information that Carolina didn't reveal that they then revealed later that suddenly allowed the NCAA to be like, okay, yeah, we're going to let Tez Walker play. But that was essentially what was prohibiting them, but it's still not even known by the public right now.

Griffin Cunningham 36:36
Yeah. And I mean, he's only he's playing three games. And he's had my first game started a little slow. Last two games, over 100 yards, multiple touchdowns, he's really clicking with Drake May, and he's looking like their best receiver. So I mean, even though there are there are our rivals, I feel like it's best for everyone when the best players play. And especially like, I mean, Mack Brown, I'm going to read the Mack Brown quote on on what he had to say about it a couple weeks ago. He said, the decision makers at the NCAA and on the committee should be ashamed of themselves for doing this to a young man, as has been clearly documented, Tez should be eligible for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the mental health issues he's faced during his time in college. With this decision, the NCAA has placed an unnecessary burden on him. He's had a rough go of it, and this will surely only make it worse. How dare they ever speak about mental health and student athlete welfare? Again, I think that's a pretty powerful quote. And then that, I mean, that's, that's a bigger issue. So I'm glad that he got to play. And I think that both parties are accountable. And it's relevant to us too, because we also have an athlete who's a double transfer. One of our our newly acquired players Cam Woods is a double transfer. He came from Troy in 2020 2021, and then went to a&t NCAA and T 2022 2023. And now he's here. And it seems like it's the same rule. So I'm curious to see how that develops. He's not obviously Tez Walker level player, but my understanding of this rule is that if you are double transfer, you have to sit for a year. So obviously, I would want to see him play. So I'm, I'm interested, kind of nervous to see what happens with that situation.

Patrick Simon 38:42
Tez Walker thing is like a massive deal on a similar situation is going on, and there's just no, like no comments about it. Well,

Griffin Cunningham 38:48
I mean, not even that, it's just like, when when it comes down to play, what are they gonna say?

Patrick Simon 38:53
That's what I'm saying? I'm saying like that there's that hasn't been talked about yet. And we're getting closer and closer to the season and there hasn't been too much talk on it. Which is I don't It's just that's that's just the the problem, I would say with the NCAA as a whole, just poor communication, like Stone said, long, long, unneeded processes. For things that could probably be sorted out relatively quickly. But yeah, yeah,

Griffin Cunningham 39:17
things are changing, though. Things are definitely changing. And you guys are talking about the college football playoffs. And I didn't even mention this, but like, the format of that is changing too. So yeah, we talked about all these teams not getting an opportunity like in the better conferences.

Stone Boylan 39:33
They'll all get a chance right soon when they you know, move to even more. Yeah.

Griffin Cunningham 39:38
I think that's a good stopping point for that segment. We had to cut the segment last week, but I'm excited to hear what you have to say about this stone. We're gonna talk about some professional athletes.

Stone Boylan 39:47
Yes, just not going to go in crazy long but just want to bring up some PAC pros. These are you know, guys, we just want to check on their graduates from NC State. Went here and went into their respective sports and just seeing how they're playing right now. So starting with football in the NFL, we have a duo guard or duo team at least have two offensive linemen that are both on the same team, the Carolina Panthers, guard Chandler's Zavala and tackle Mukwonago. Zavala is the most recent pick, he was a 2023 4th round pick. Unfortunately for him and the team, they're not playing extremely well. I'd say Mukwonago who is giving at least the most hope, as he was drafted very high in the 2022 NFL Draft. He's a first round pick. He's not playing too bad, but he's still not producing like a top 10 pick. But aligned does take a bit longer to develop. So hopefully he can get that together. Still a great run blocker just needs to improve his past blocking. And then Chandler Zavala a few weeks ago, had a very scary neck injury versus the lions reportedly went to the hospital. It seems like he is now back with the team. It's just his return is currently unknown. So hopefully he is able to get better and you know, try and regain his starting spot on the Panthers because he was starting because of injury but wasn't playing amazing but wasn't playing horrendously bad. So, again, offensive lineman takes a while for them to develop. So hopefully our pack pros are duo and Carolina can get better there. But we also have some other old linemen that are actually really good. We do a pretty good job in producing some of these offensive linemen. Minnesota center Garrett Bradbury for the Vikings was a 2019 first round pick. And he is currently playing very well and a Minnesota team that is I think better than the record shows. Just beat Kansas City or just beat San Francisco Monday night. The day before since we're recording this on Tuesday. Currently throughout the season. He has a perfect pass blocking efficiency grade and his top two and blocking grade just overall amongst centers. So playing very well like an All Pro pro bowler right now. And then Kansas City we also have a guard that is named Joe Toony. And he has played very well he's been in the league a little bit longer. He was a 2016 3rd round pick for the New England Patriots is a two time all pro three times Super Bowl champion because he had signed with the Kansas City Chiefs when they won a Super Bowl and is one of the best guards in the league and on one of the best teams in the league helping protest protect the best quarterback in the league. So pretty high regards for some NC State offensive lineman there. And we've got some more NFL players from state and offensive skills position guy don't have a ton of those in the NFL, at least not right now. But we do have a pretty solid one wide receiver Jacoby Meyers currently for the Las Vegas Raiders undrafted in 2019 to the New England Patriots, he's not a pro bowler or anything but is proven to be a very good starter. He has the most yards and receptions on the Patriots since he came to the team in 2019 and that still stands even with him being on a different team right now. So he definitely left his mark in New England. He's tied fourth in the NFL for touchdowns right now with four touchdowns over five games. So pretty solid play, and he's now in Las Vegas looking pretty good. Do you have anything to say on that? Patrick?

Patrick Simon 43:27
I really liked Jacoby Myers and I think his his role alongside Davante Adams is really nice. 385 yards, and you said was a four or five touchdowns.

Stone Boylan 43:37
I had written this down later. So it might be even more I think it's I think it's

Patrick Simon 43:41
five so it's five times 385 yards, five touchdowns in the season. What I find really interesting about him is if you look Davante Adams recently, I'm not saying about Davante Adams as a player, but he's had some up and down performances. Obviously things in Vegas are all over the place. But Jacoby Myers has been consistent games, the Davante Adams has had down games, the budget, Jacoby Myers has remained consistent. And I'm not sure if that has been you know if he has better chemistry with Jimmy Garoppolo which that could very well be the case. But something that I find very interesting. I know the Raiders have been adamant that they're not or at least what the press is saying is that the Raiders are adamant that Davante Adams is not going to be traded, but Davante Adams has expressed numerous times that he's unhappy. So if Davante Adams for some reason was to get out of Las Vegas. I would like to see the trajectory of Jacoby's career because a wide receiver one roll would be very interesting for him considering last time he had one when he wasn't a wide receiver one roll it was with Matt Jones so in in Vegas I think it was with wide receiver one with arguably a better quarterback that be interesting to see.

Stone Boylan 44:41
Yeah, I mean I'd say they're relatively similar he also had candidate and for a year that was actually was not that bad. Towards the end of the season. He actually literally almost made the playoffs and a COVID year with that team but um yeah, playing probably pretty well. Not a crazy player but definitely a valuable one in the NFL and NC State has also produced some good defensive starters around the league defensive tackle Alene McNeil third round pick in 2021. currently playing for the Detroit Lions is having a relative ly you know, breakout season in his third year, I grades as a top five run blocker for interior defensive lineman and is helping lead the lions to one of the best run defenses in the NFL. Now, obviously they just got exposed a little bit to the Ravens recently but still on a very good team helping them emerge very young as well. So hopefully he can have a pretty good career. Cincinnati linebacker Jermaine Pratt, also an NC State boy 2019 3rd round pick, had a breakout season for Cincinnati last year as they had a great season played like a top 10 linebacker and was one of the best coverage linebackers in the NFL. He's not having the same start to the season, as he did last year, which Cincinnati in themselves is not really doing that but you know, it's still currently top 10 in tackles and allowed passer rating for linebackers which is like not allowing a lot but you know, allowing a low passer rating so still having a pretty good season. And then the one that most people probably know is Miami currently on the Miami former Denver Broncos edge rusher Bradley Chubb 2018 first draft pick with Denver, I'd say pry. I mean Mukwonago was obviously a great player. But I think Chubb is probably the most hyped up guy since invest in terms of the draft and there haven't been a lot there. Obviously there were guys after him but hasn't really been as as big as Bradley Chubb because he was very hyped, especially you know, just in Carolina, obviously are in the state of North Carolina, especially for NC State, but he's not really had exactly what you'd expect of a top five pick, but did have injuries. And unfortunately, you know, hasn't been able to reach the heights that were expected but he's still a very good starter two Time Pro Bowler, an important part of one of the best teams in the NFL had helping them have a top 10 defense in the NFL. You know, among players with 15 or more tackles Chubb has the lowest missed tackle race so he's still producing very well. And then we got some punters to NC State can produce some punters. Las Vegas punter AJ Cole, undrafted, in 2019 is a two time pro bowler and a one time all pro one of the best punters in the league. And then Chicago we also have a punter over there in Trenton Gil who is a 2022 7th round pick who was solid last year and has earned his job again this year. So those are some tech pros in the NFL. Now going to the NBA. We got point guard Dennis Smith, Jr. obviously extremely hyped when he came out in 2017. First round pick end up being the ninth overall pick in the NBA draft has not really lived up to the hype at all. But I don't think you can say he's a complete bust because he's still playing in the NFL. He's been around the trade bloc, NBA or NBA, not NFL. Probably could play in the NFL maybe maybe actually

Patrick Simon 47:57
interesting enough. He kind of had his career wrapped up. Before he signed with the Hornets. Last year, he was calling his agent and he reached out and attempts to get have an NFL career wanted to give it a shot. That's how like, like it was like it was over

Stone Boylan 48:12
for him kind of wishful thinking of him being in the NFL. But still, at least with his career. It's been kind of interesting. He's kind of been around the block was drafted to Dallas, where you know, he had his best season to be honest in his rookie year 15 points per game five assists, then was traded to New York as a pretty big part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade got lost in the rotation with New York didn't shoot well. Didn't get the ball enough traded to Detroit then sign with Portland recently with the Hornets kind of had a mini resurgence here in Charlotte. And now he just recently signed with the Brooklyn Nets so at least he's still in the NFL. In the NBA. I keep saying NFL NBA shooting guard Darien siebrand, undrafted in 2022 ended up signing a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. He did sign a two way deal. He's currently still on the roster. So obviously some of you remember him playing at NC State, pretty solid there. And then they got TJ Warren, who was much later 2014 He was a 14th overall pick in the first round. Been a solid starter for his career so far, especially in the bubble as probably the most notable point of his career when the bubble was going on in the COVID season, but it's currently a free agent talking with the Celtics. And then obviously we have Smith, who got a was he a second round pick or undrafted? I believe he went undrafted, which was kind of odd. It is now on the 76ers Yeah, yeah playing and he's on the roster

Patrick Simon 49:49
so you know that's that's pretty cool that he's there. Hopefully he can get some time especially with the with the harden situation and he could definitely I mean obviously he's very I think he's on a two way contract I believe. And he's deep on the depth chart. But especially if there's injuries and then if you're taking James Harden out of the equation, he could definitely get bumped up to the active roster for a

Stone Boylan 50:05
minute. So hopefully he gets some playing time there. He was really, I really liked watching him, especially in the tournament against Creighton. And then we got some baseball players. We have Yes, we actually got that baseball. This is probably where we have like the best players from state ironically, there's two that are much higher, and then there's two a little bit lower. Starting with the other two. There's Kachru Andrew Kinzer, who is a seventh round pick in2016 didn't play in the MLB until 2019, as currently with the St. Louis Cardinals, not necessarily, you know, getting a ton of rotation there but still in the league. We also have another catcher Patrick Bailey 2022 first round pick just had his rookie year with the San Francisco Giants played pretty solid. He's going to stay in the majors for this next season. So that's pretty good for him. Obviously, if you don't know baseball, a lot of guys kind of go up and down. If they're not, you know, superstars or guys that are getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars. So for a rookie player, oh, goodness, first year, it's nice to he's gonna stay on the team. And then we have two other guys that are definitely probably some of the best players in the MLB pitcher Carlos Rodon, who is a 16th round pick in 2011. You guys probably don't remember this player, but very slept on and did not play in the MLB until 2015, where he got his chance with the Chicago White Sox and has emerged at least this season because from 2015 I'd say until 2020. He was like fine. He was a solid player, but 2021 and 2022 really broke out he was a two time All Star both in those two years, signed a six year $162 million deal with the Yankees last offseason and is currently a top 10 pitcher in the MLB. And then, probably the best player that we have currently is shortstop Trey Turner, who was a 2013 first round pick very hyped up as a recruit went to State obviously got picked in the first round, and he has been a two time all star a 2019 world series champion won the batting title in 2021 has been first in hits for two seasons, and is currently on the Philadelphia Phillies right there with Bryce Harper is their best player, where they are currently in the NLCS meaning they are one round away from playing in the World Series, which is basically the championship. And they're currently reversing the Arizona Diamondbacks. And that game is happening on Tuesday. So it'll be done by the time this episode comes out. And we're rooting for him and hopefully he can win that game and I hope the Phillies end up winning the World Series and that'd be really cool. And it's nice that we have someone who's currently acknowledged as the best shortstop in the MLB as a Wolfpack. Yeah, I

Griffin Cunningham 52:50
can say I've heard about him.

Stone Boylan 52:52
I hope so.

Griffin Cunningham 52:54
Yeah, okay. Well, that's all we got today. Hopefully you enjoyed some of those creative segments that we had planned. And yeah, this has been Light it Red. Music In this podcast was Jonas Hooper's king of sports and vibe and sneaky, licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive

Transcribed by https://otter.ai